Balance of Power

There's a new administration coming to Washington DC, a new legislature in Columbus with new faces and a stronger Republican majority ,and campaigns already getting underway for this year's mayoral race in Cleveland and next year's statewide elections including Governor. Stay connected with the latest on politics, policies and people making the decisions at all levels affecting your lives.

All four of the declared Democratic candidates for governor have committed to a series of debates beginning in Belmont County on Sept. 12. But as WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports, much of the focus is on whether a fifth candidate may join them.

The Ohio Democratic Party hopes to hold six gubernatorial debates – three this year and three next. Party Chairman David Pepper says they’ll likely focus on what he says is the damage nearly a decade of Republican control has done to local schools, local governments and local economies.

A contender for U.S. Senate is raising the stakes by hiring some big players in statewide and national politics.

Republican investment banker Mike Gibbons hired the digital team that helped Donald Trump’s presidential run. And he hired Chris Schrimpf, a former spokesperson for the White House campaign of John Kasich, a Trump critic. Schrimpf says this shows Gibbons is serious.

One of the four GOP candidates for governor believes momentum is swinging his direction after gaining more support from local leaders. As Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports, the county-level endorsements have proven to be helpful in recent big elections.

Secretary of State Jon Husted says his list of supporters for governor now includes a third of Ohio’s 88 Republican county chairs.